June 28, 2023, 2:27 PM
June 28, 2023, 2:27 PM
A group of four merchant brothers who collected Bs 770,000 in order to buy a bus, they were scammed by a peruvian citizen who posed as a free trader, who instead of delivering dollar bills, He delivered a briefcase with stones and cardboard.
The brothers noticed the scam half an hour after receiving the briefcase, since the supposed free trader asked them not to open it, for security reasons, time that they took advantage of to run away with Bs 770,000.
The briefcase alone cThey contained stones and cardboard, and not the dollars, so the victims They reported the scam to the Police in the city of El Alto, La Paz.
The Peruvian citizen was not the only one who acted in the scam, but rather operated in complicity with a family friend of merchants.
Colonel Limberth Coca, director of the Special Force to Fight Crime (Felcc) of El Alto, in La Paz, indicated that the false free trader is a citizen Peruvian with a criminal record who already was apprehended by the Police as well as the ‘friend’ of the merchants. Both were sent to prison with preventive detention, for a period of five months while the investigations continue.
“The Peruvian citizen promised a group of merchants the conversion of their money into US currency, but instead he gave them stones and cardboard,” explained the police chief.
They recovered part of the money.
The scammer was identified as Silvestre, who met with the brothers in a hotel in El Alto for the currency exchange, where he said his accountant was, but in reality the man, upon receiving the Bs 770,000, fled the place.
The head of Financial Economic Crimes of the Felcc, William Calderón, indicated that the meeting place was a hotel located in the Satellite area.
“When the Peruvian citizen delivers the briefcase, he asks them not to open it for security reasons. The man enters the hotel and flees through the back of the hotel, through the escape route. After 30 minutes, the brothers open the briefcase and to their surprise they only find stones and cardboard,” he said.
After the operations carried out and the triangulation of calls, the uniformed officers found the fraudster aboard a motorcycle on Buenos Aires Avenue. He had part of the money to deliver to his accomplice.
“yesHe is apprehended and the motorcycle is kidnapped, a bag is also found black where 230 thousand Bolivians are recovered, money that he was going to deliver to the accomplice,” he said.
The subject refrained from declaring and did not want to indicate what he did or where he kept the rest of the money. Given this situation, the Police continue to carry out operations to recover all the stolen money.
It is not ruled out that other members of theto criminal gang the remaining 540,000 Bolivians will be taken to Peru.
